Josh, Maya and Talents
by Brown Eyes Parker
Summary: Josh goes over to his brother's apartment and learns a few things about Maya. Day 2 in Joshaya Appreciation Week on tumblr. Rated K .


**Josh, Maya and Talents**

 **A Josh & Maya Story**

 **By Brown Eyes Parker**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Rated: K+**

 **.**

He could hear somebody singing and it was one of the sweetest sounds that he had ever heard. There was something familiar about her voice, like he knew it from his dreams or his life. He came a little closer and pushed the door open, sitting in the bay window was Maya Hart. She was sketching in a large, worn out sketchbook while she sang one of his favorite songs.

Joshua Matthews was completely enchanted. He couldn't move from the spot even if he tried or if she noticed that he was standing there watching her. Seeing her in this kind of element only intrigued him more and it made him wonder what he was missing out on by always telling her that he was too old for her.

He wondered if he would only take the time to really talk to her, what she would have shared with him. Suddenly, he wanted to know about her more than anything in the world. He hesitated for a second, not wanting to interrupt her but wanting nothing more than to sit by her side.

" _Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there? Is your heart filled with pain? Shall I come back again? Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?"_ Maya stopped singing and frowned because she realized somebody was peering at her through the doorway. "Riley? Riley is that you?"

"No. . ." Josh said sheepishly as he opened the door all the way. "It's me. . . I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I didn't think anybody was going to be here. I came to study for a huge test that I have to take on Monday morning."

"Mom and Shawn just got back from their honeymoon," Maya told him. "If you know what I mean. . . I decided to give them some space, I knew that the apartment was going to be empty this afternoon but Riley kept the window open for me just in case."

"Cory left a spare key for me under the doormat. It's just a matter of time before they make us both copies though. It seems like we're always here."

"Yeah," Maya agreed, tucking her graphite pencil into her messy bun and closing her sketchbook with a dull thud. "So, Uncle Boing, how long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough," Josh answered. "I didn't know you could sing _and_ draw."

Maya shook her head. "It's just child's play. It isn't like I'd win _the Voice_ or anything like _that_. As for my sketches, well, they're just _doodles_. They won't hang them in art galleries one day, Blair Waldorf-Bass won't purchase one of my paintings for her entryway and before you ask, I'm _not_ going to let you see my drawings."

"You're not going to let _me_ be the judge of that?"

"Nope!" Maya said, holding the book a little bit closer to her chest.

"You won't let me have _one_ little peek?"

Maya shook her head. "No. . ."

"You were kind of hesitant that time," Josh told her.

"Go and study for your test, Matthews!" Maya ordered, pointing towards the door like she was banishing him to the living room.

Josh was about to protest but then changed his mind. He knew that when she was ready, she would share her sketchbook with him. He hoped so anyways. Maya usually didn't share things with him unless she was forced into it by a third party.

"Are you gone yet? If you think I'm going to change my mind, I'm _not_!" Maya said.

"Sorry, sorry!" Josh apologized. "I was just. . . thinking."

There was a pause and then Maya put her sketchbook down beside her. "I'll come with you, I can cook something for dinner while you start to study."

"You can cook too?"

"Hardly," Maya answered as she followed him out into the kitchen. "It's _just_ homemade macaroni & cheese. I can't cook like Julia Child or anybody like that."

"It's impressive that you know who Julia Child is," Josh said as he sit down at the table and opened his messenger bag and took out a thick textbook.

"Everybody knows who she is," Maya replied as she rummaged through a cabinet and found a box of rigatoni pasta. "Meryl Streep was in that movie about her life in France."

" _Julie & Julia_," Josh murmured as he highlighted a large paragraph in electric blue.

"Oh, so you know it?" Maya asked, ripping the box of pasta open and pouring it into a pot of water. "Wait, why are you still talking to me? Aren't you supposed to be studying?"

"I'm multitasking," Josh promptly answered and Maya smiled for the first time that afternoon. She went about her business, singing under her breath while he continued to study.

When the pasta was done cooking and she'd whisked up a cheese sauce, she mixed all the ingredients in and dumped it into a baking dish. While it finished cooking in the oven, she retrieved her sketchbook from Riley's room and started to work on another picture.

When the timer above the stove pinged, she got it out and let it cool for a little bit before serving both her and Josh generous helpings on paper plates.

"Ready to take a break?" Maya asked, waiting for him to close his books and cap his highlighter before putting his food down in front of him.

"This looks delicious," Josh answered. "Thank you Maya."

"You're welcome," Maya replied, sitting down again and waiting for him to taste his mac & cheese before digging into her own dinner. "Do you like it?"

Josh smiled at her. "I like it a lot. It's definitely the best macaroni & cheese that I've eaten in a while. Maya Hart, you are a woman of many hidden talents. You can sing, you can draw, you can cook. What _can't_ you do?"

"Anybody can make mac & cheese," Maya said modestly.

"Maybe if it's from a _box_ ," Josh came back. "I'm pretty sure college students are the biggest reason Kraft is still in business. I think I'm going to have to keep you around just to cook for me."

"I told you before, I can't really cook! I'm not Julia Child or even Ree Drummond!" Maya protested. "I can only cook basics like pancakes and mac & cheese and omelets!"

"That would be enough to get me to ask you to marry me," Josh told her as he shoveled more food into his mouth.

Maya didn't dignify his comment with a response but she smiled to herself all the same.

When they were finished eating, she cleaned up while he went back to studying for his test. When she was done, her mom texted her telling her to come home from the Matthews apartment.

"I have to go," Maya told Josh. "I'll see you later, Josh."

"'Bye Maya," Josh answered, looking up from his books and smiling at her. "Thanks for cooking for me!"

"Anytime," Maya said before she could stop herself. "Well. . . 'bye."

And then she was gone, leaving Josh all by himself to study.

 **.**

When he got back to his dorm later that night, there was a folded piece of sketchbook paper on his bed.

"Some blonde chick left a note for you," Josh's roommate told him, not looking away from his Xbox. "Lucky you, you get all the good looking girls wanting you."

"Shut up," Josh answered, setting his bag down before picking up the paper, he opened it and did a double-take when he saw what it was.

It was one of Maya's drawings, carefully torn from the sketchbook that she had been trying to guard from him earlier that afternoon. It was an exact likeness of him except she had captured something about him, something that maybe only she could see.

He smiled and tucked it away for safekeeping.

She truly was talented.

He hoped that one day she would be able to see it too.

 **_The End_**

 **.**

 **Author's Note:**

 **I don't know about this one, it wasn't forced at all but still. I feel like it's incomplete in some way or that it doesn't fit the prompt the way it should and I got way meta with placing them in a world where Chuck and Blair Bass actually exist, but I** _ **did**_ **have fun writing this. Please tell me if you enjoyed reading it.**

 **I'll be back tomorrow with another story.**

 **Until Then!**

 **Lots of love,**

 **Holly**


End file.
